I will definitely be doing some benchmarks and stuff, but I can't hold on till Windows 8 retails to start using it properly. But there lies the problem. What if I start using it in CP and they change something drastically so that retail version will need a fresh Space? The download page does say there are no guarantees on Microsoft's part and it's a risk. And if this happens, I can't just plug it in to my sig rig and pull all the data either, according to the Windows blog article on Spaces I just read, it'll show up as a drive with unrecognised partitioning.

@Ellis, cheers Will have to wait for that then. I was just gonna start downloading Consumer Preview.

I will definitely be doing some benchmarks and stuff, but I can't hold on till Windows 8 retails to start using it properly. But there lies the problem. What if I start using it in CP and they change something drastically so that retail version will need a fresh Space? The download page does say there are no guarantees on Microsoft's part and it's a risk. And if this happens, I can't just plug it in to my sig rig and pull all the data either, according to the Windows blog article on Spaces I just read, it'll show up as a drive with unrecognised partitioning.
@Ellis, cheers Will have to wait for that then. I was just gonna start downloading Consumer Preview.

Q) Can I move a storage pool from one PC to another, once created? For example, if I have a cage with 6 removable drives?

Yes. Just connect the physical disks comprising the pool to the new PC.

Q) Say I have 3 external enclosures and I remove them one at a time. I then plug them into another Windows 8 PC in reverse order. Will the new PC think I have a broken pool or will it eventually catch up? What if I never plug in one of the enclosures?

You can plug enclosures back in in any order. When Storage Spaces detects a sufficient number of disks for quorum, it activates the pool and contained spaces. You can plug in more enclosures later. If the data on any disks becomes out of sync, Storage Spaces will automatically sync them. Even if you never plug in some enclosures, as long as Storage Spaces detects the minimum number of disks needed, you can continue working with your data. Both via PowerShell and via Control Panel, Storage Spaces informs you that a few physical disks are missing, thereby encouraging you to plug them back in.

With seeing the storage spaces feature and a few other things, I've gone from totally dismissing Windows 8 to actually being quite excited about its launch. Will depend how much it is as to whether I upgrade at launch or not - I would probably only settle for the Pro edition.

I was watching a video on how to set up a windows home server and the person making the video used a pci-e raid card, and he said something about how it had memory (and a battery) so it could actually recreate a lost disk. I may be wrong.
Same guy different video was explaining raids and explained how raid 5 although you theoretically lose disk space it can actually rebuild itself.
Acer i think it is also makes home servers, you can just add more drives and what not. Maybe not as elaborate as you might be looking at but just plug and play.

Specs:
A6 3500 65wASUS F1A75-M FM1 AMD A75 6xSATAIII ports
Corsair 430CX v2
NZXT H2 White
Blu-Ray drive I had laying around
500GB 7200rpm
4xHitachi 7K3000 7200rpm drives (Had 3 of them so I got 1 more and still need the last 1 for 5 Drives in raid 5).
Mini PCI-e 2-Sata card that will have the blu ray and OS drive.

I plan to use it as a streaming file/storage server. At some point I want it to be a DVR for some cameras and If I can trim down Server 2008 R2 I will
be playing Blu ray movies with it if I can centralize the server in my bedroom.